


lovely weather (for a sleigh ride together)

by spidermanhomecomeme



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Animals, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Marriage Proposal, Mild Language, Secret Santa, Snow, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21961507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spidermanhomecomeme/pseuds/spidermanhomecomeme
Summary: My gift forstilinskiloveslydia! Hope you enjoy all of this fluffy and snowy goodness!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! <3
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71
Collections: Spideychelle Secret Santa - 2k19





	lovely weather (for a sleigh ride together)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stilinskiloveslydia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stilinskiloveslydia/gifts).



> My gift for stilinskiloveslydia! Hope you enjoy all of this fluffy and snowy goodness!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! <3

“Remind me again–and this is in no way me saying that I don’t wanna go–but… why exactly are we doing this?”

Peter shifts slightly under MJ’s gaze from the passenger seat, the car suddenly feeling approximately a thousand degrees hotter. He chuckles, then clears his throat, his hands flexing against the still-cold steering wheel, hoping he doesn’t seem as nervous as he feels. 

But keeping his eyes trained to the winding roads in front of them, drumming his thumbs at ten and two, he finally glances over. 

“…Because.”

Yup. 

Totally inconspicuous.

He’s never acted more naturally in his life. 

Her expression falls as she fixes him with a deadpan stare. 

A light laugh bubbles up out of him all on it’s own. “Because….” He repeats himself, voice trailing off, mentally scrambling to find anything that wasn’t the real reason for this two-and-a-half hour journey into the country. “I thought it would be fun!” He finally spits out, though he doesn’t relax just yet. From the corner of his eye, he can see MJ staring, sizing him up, calculating. 

For some reason–gee, wonder what it could be–he feels compelled to just keep talking. “Plus! You said you’d never been on a sleigh ride before–like a real one, with jingles bells and everything–so, I thought, well, we absolutely had to fix that.”

Which wasn’t _technically_ a lie. Peter thought a ride in a how-ever-many-horse open sleigh was something everyone had to experience at least once in their life. Sitting bundled up with loved ones in the back of the sleigh, the cold winter wind biting at your cheeks and nose, oh-so-festive ringing of the sleigh bells, the horses’ hooves in the snow–it was something you just couldn’t experience the same way without getting out of the city. 

Ben and May had taken him once, a long time ago, when he was just a kid. They hadn’t done it again, being as even just an hour ride can cost more the Parker’s could afford, but it’s a memory that always brings a fuzzy warmth to his chest. It’s something that he’ll always treasure, something that he’ll always be grateful for. 

But, sound as all that was, it wasn’t the _real_ reason. 

No, the real reason was currently in a tiny black velvet box nestled deep in his pocket. 

MJ didn’t need to know that. 

But it wasn’t as if his proposal was going to be a surprise by any means. For months, even years now, they’d talked about marriage. There was a whole timeline and everything. Year four into the relationship, they moved in together, and now it had been nearly a year and a half of that. Engagement, they’d decided, would come towards the end of undergrad. Then, there would be another two-ish years of wedding planning before the big event would actually take place. 

Obviously, this wasn’t a strict timeline by any means; in fact, it acted as more of a guideline, something they could loosely follow. They’d already broken it once, moving in together six months after they’d originally planned to, so an engagement just before their last semester starts was still in the ballpark.

Now, MJ had expressed before that he didn’t have to propose at all, that she would be perfectly fine with just going out to buy a ring together, posting on instagram or something, and calling it good. 

But, on the other hand she also knew that Peter would want to do something more… well, grand.

Which she was also perfectly fine with. 

All that mattered to her was being engaged to Peter. Why, where, or how that happened? She couldn’t care less. 

Even then, however, as much as she loved and sometimes tolerated Peter, there were still some rules. 

But…

Peter was willing to chance it. More than willing. In fact, this was the type of proposal he knows for a fact that she’d be 100% okay with, even with the conditions.

One, MJ loves animals. All animals. Each and every one. There’s not a dog, cat, hamster, guinea pig, bird, lizard, or bug she didn’t like, or that didn’t like her. 

_“They’re better than people,”_ she’d once said, holding her grandmother’s wild-eyed tabby in her arms, the normally overly grumbly cat purring contentedly. She just had a way with the world’s furry, feathery, and scaly friends–something he’d seen all those years ago with the terrifying pigeons in Venice. 

Two, and this was important, this would not technically be in public, or in front of her family, two of the only conditions MJ had set for this. 

No crowds.

No getting down on one knee at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or any major holiday for that matter.

Or her birthday. 

No ifs, ands, or buts.

And it–this proposal, right here, today–was neither of those things. The only audience they’d have being the one driving the sleigh, a lovely old man (a one Mr. Matthews) that Peter briefly talked on the phone with about this whole thing. Sure the older fellow was excited about the prospect of a young love, a new engagement, but it was clear that this wasn’t really something he was going to lose his mind about. 

“Hmm.” He hears her hum quietly as she angles her body forward, though she doesn’t seem to accept his answer, and rightly so. 

It’s odd; he fully expects her to keep poking at him, to ask him why he’s being so weird or, “weirder than normal,” even though she probably has an inkling as to why he’s acting so strange. 

And honestly, at this point, he’s almost 60% sure she knows exactly what’s going on. 

Oh well.

But surprisingly, she doesn’t grill him for the rest of the drive. Instead, they sit in a comfortable (well, at least she’s comfortable) silence, just enjoying the beauty of the emerging country around them, thankful for the cleared roads as the snow falls peacefully outside. 

Though, as beautiful as it is, that ring in his pocket is making him feel like his stomach is about to fall right out of his ass.

He almost–almost–relaxes when he sees the rustic wooden sign at the top of the hill, knowing that soon he’ll be able to get out of the car. But then, when they actually pull in and park, when they actually step out into the cold winter air again, that feeling comes right back. It annoyingly stays when they enter the main building to check in, when Mr. Matthews leads them to the stables and to the sleigh lead by two large brown horses

He almost doesn’t hear the driver telling them the mares’ names over the sound of his own heartbeat thumping in his ears. 

“Meet Juniper and Peanut,” the old man says, warmth in his tone as he moves to adjust the sleigh bells on the collars. 

“Oh my God, they’re so fuzzy…” MJ, in awe at the massive animals, mutters under her breath, close to Peter’s ear. 

“Yeah…” Peter agrees, his voice breathy, as he scratches the back of his neck. 

Without any prompt from either her boyfriend or their driver, Michelle walks up to the animals, hand carefully held out as she allows the two horses to smell her first. 

“Now, Juni here is a bit more of a grump. Bit more aloof. But Peanut, she loves pets. And treats. More than anything.”

Michelle huffs out in slight amusement, nodding once in understanding, though not looking away from the two horses. 

Juniper sniffs once before glancing away, her curiosity gone almost immediately and replaced with moderate disinterest, while Peanut revels in the attention, pushing her nose into MJ’s outstretched hand.

And again, Peter just about forgets why he’s so nervous, becoming too distracted by the soft smile on his girlfriend’s face, the way that expression breaks into a toothy grin when the other, more emotionally distant mare starts to gently nudge her arm for the same attention. 

Though that brief moment of internal calm is shattered by Mr. Matthews ushering them into the back of the sleigh. 

“You know, I’ve actually never been around horses before?” MJ asks as they climb into their seats, the driver reaching back to hand them a thick wool blanket for the ride. 

“Really?” Peter asks, the knot in his stomach still ever present. 

Mr. Matthews urges the horses onward and into the snow with a soft click and a flick of the reins.

MJ nods, scratching at her eyes. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure my last experience with them was that cartoon horse movie Matt Damon was in, like, forever ago.”

Peter’s brows crinkle in slight confusion and faint recognition. 

She answers her own unasked question before he can even open his mouth to speak. _“Spirit.”_ She snaps her fingers “That’s the one.”

In spite of his nerves, he can’t help but laugh at that, though he can’t help but notice that slight chatter of her teeth when she speaks as they ride out into the farm. 

“You cold?” He asks, maybe a little bit dumbly.

She shakes her head. “Nuh uh.” A shiver. “This weather is just _lovely.”_

He chuckles lightly, and wordlessly, he scoots closer to her, taking her hand in his and interlocking their gloved fingers together, his heart soaring at the comforting warmth that comes from just how grand it feels. 

While it is the perfect weather for a two-horse sleigh, the winter chilled air nipping at his face, his cheeks, his nose, turning them a shade of red (one that he knows Michelle would probably tell him was “cute”)… it almost would have been too much for him. 

But again, there was a reason they were here, and besides, with MJ… 

He wasn’t gonna let this cold bother him. 

He gets this uncontrollable, dumb grin on his face, and he snuggles closer to her. 

“Lovely with _you.”_

To that, she fakes a gag, sniffling slightly as she tries to pull her hand away from his. “Ugh, gross.”

“Oh, sorry. I’ll stop. I’ll stop,” he gives the empty promise, throwing her a sly wink before squeezing her hand. 

A few beats of a peaceful quiet pass, the only sounds being the ringing of the bells and the crunch of snow. The snow falls around them in delicate, fluffy flakes, the stray ones being caught in his girlfriend’s curls. 

She leans her head against his, and he can almost feel her soft smile as he leans right back. 

“Is it okay if I sing a carol, or something?” Peter asks, the humor in his tone earning him a light smack on the arm. 

MJ sits back up, her glare almost menacing, save for the twitch of a barely amused smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She opens her mouth to speak, but is suddenly overcome, her eyes screwing shut, with a powerful–

_“ACHOO!”_

Peter nearly jumps. “Bless you?”

“Thanks.” MJ clears her throat, sniffling again. 

And it’s amazing that Peter hadn’t noticed in the nearly ten minutes they’d been in the sleigh; the whites of her eyes were almost entirely red, the bags under them slightly puffy. “You good?” He asks.

“Yeah!” MJ lies. “Yeah! I’m good. Just… some…. uh, sniffles. I guess.” She sneezes into the crook of her arm again. “Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s a minor allergic reaction to something. It’s fine.”

Peter wracked his brain for what that allergy could be; it wasn’t nuts, that he definitely knew, being one, that she didn’t have a history with that, and two, they hadn’t eaten anything of the sort. Dogs and cats were out of the question… so was… basically everything else… but…

The loud whinny of one of the mares cuts through his little internal monologue. 

Ah ha!

“Are you allergic to horses?”

MJ’s lips quirk into a quick frown and she shrugs, sniffling again. “Maybe?”

_“Can_ you be allergic to horses?”

“You can be allergic to anything.”

Very true. 

And just like that, the guilt hits him like a train, seeing MJ suddenly looking so incredibly miserable and tired, sounding so congested, all because of his big, stupid, grand plan of proposing on what was supposed to be a romantic sleigh ride. 

“Don’t you dare apologize,” MJ cuts in before he can even think so say anything.

He opens his mouth to speak, dumbfounded. 

She continues. “It’s fine!” Sniffle. Sneeze. “It’s honestly fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Peter’s quiet for a moment, offering a silent, conceding nod.

His brow furrows in thought as he bites at the inside of his lip; he can’t in good conscience keep her out here just so he can carry out this little fairytale proposal he’d had thought out for so many months. It wouldn’t be right. She didn’t need him asking her to spend the rest of her life with him; she needed to go home, take some benadryl, maybe have some herbal tea, and get in bed. 

Another day, perhaps.

“Do you wanna go back?” He finally asks, defeated. 

She starts to shake her head before he even finishes that question, clearing her scratchy, barb-wire throat. “No! This was what…. 200 dollars? We’re not going back just because I can’t handle a little horse dander.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She grabs his hand again, pulling him back to her. “Now, calm down, Mother Hen, I’ll be okay.”

It takes some major coaxing on MJ’s part, but Peter does eventually come around, his worried, fleeing glances finally stopping after a few more minutes of dashing through the snow. For a moment, he thinks that maybe the plan, the entire day, hasn’t been ruined at all. Maybe this could all still work. 

It’s all so enchanting, and they both seem to forget about the funny little allergies that came out of nowhere. They brace themselves as the sleigh nears the top of a small hill, and Mr. Matthews throws a playful warning over his shoulder. The couple laughs again, holding each other tight as the horses pick up speed on the way down, the wind whistling right past them, snowflakes covering their faces. The shimmering snow around them is nearly blinding, a stark contrast to the deep green of the surrounding trees. 

Peter hears Mr. Matthews’ _“Giddy-up!”_ followed by Michelle’s joyful, exhilarated holler as they descend another small slope; his heart nearly bursts at the wide, uninhibited smile plastered on her face. 

When they come upon a clearing, and the horses slow to a gentle walk, Peter knows, right then and there, that it’s time. That this is right. Allergies be damned.

_Oh, good God._

“MJ,” he says without even giving it another thought, immediately turning to face her, his expression serious. 

He swallows as she waits for him to speak, eyes slightly wide. “What’s up?”

This was a lot easier said than done…

Clearing his throat, he briefly looks down at their joined hands. “MJ,” he says again.

“Yes?” Her head tilts a fraction as she glances from side to side, growing more and more confused by his strange behavior by the second. 

“I–” He sighs, finally keeping his gaze on hers, willing himself to just keep going. 

He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. It wasn’t as if she would actually say, “no.” Again, this was something they’d talked about for months and months. This was something they both knew that the other wanted. 

He knew how she felt about him, and vice versa. 

So what was he so damn scared of? What was it that was making him feel like that terrified, hormonal teenage kid all over again?

When he looks up at her, though, and his eyes meet her red puffy ones, and he sees the way she’s looking at him (albeit, she’s still a little confused, but it’s a loving confused), he finds that maybe it’s not so scary. 

“MJ, I–I love you. A lot.”

She snorts. “And I love you. A lot.”

Her eyes widen as he gets down from his seat and on one knee, something that doesn’t seem to comfortable in the back of the sleigh. 

His gaze never leaves hers as he continues. “You’re my best friend in the whole world, and I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. And–”

He’s cut off with another big sneeze. 

“Sorry! Sorry!” She hastily says, waving him on to continue.

Peter chuckles. “It’s fine. I know this kind of thing didn’t really matter to you–how it happens or when or whatever… Like we could have just done this in our kitchen and we’d be happy but–” He laughs at himself, shaking his head. “But you, uh, kinda gave me free rein on this so–”

One of his hands goes to his pocket, smile never leaving his face as he grabs…

Nothing.

Nothing in the right pocket. 

Instantly, his brows pinch together in confusion, lips twisting into a frown as he feels around the pocket again. 

MJ seems to have been holding her breath this whole time, staring down at him with a quizzical quirk of her brow. 

Peter looks up at her, smiling sheepishly with a nervous chuckle. “Uh, hold on.”

He checks the left pocket. 

_Nothing._

That little velvet box, the one with the very expensive engagement ring, had somehow fallen out of his coat.

It was there earlier! He was sure of it! He held it in the car just before they’d left! Where could it have gone?

“Everything good?” He hears MJ’s voice cut through his panicked, scrambling mind. 

“Uh… No, not really.” His voice might be a little too calm, or at least trying to be. “I was, uh, going to propose… But… I think I lost the ring?”

MJ only nods, lips pressed together in a thin line, though she doesn’t seem upset or disappointed. 

“I had it… in my pocket. In the car! And when we got in the sleigh, I’m… I’m sure of it. Oh, God…” He moves to sit next to her, burying his head in his hands. “I’m so sorry, MJ. I had this whole plan… and the ring… it was so pretty and cool… and I was gonna propose–”

“Let’s find it then,” MJ suggests calmly, putting an arm around him. 

“I’m so sorry, Em…”

“Don’t be sorry,” she sniffs. “It’s okay. We’ll find it!”

Peter wants to believe her, he really does, but he can’t help but feel like losing this ring was just a sign that his original plan was, well, the wrong one. 

He knows in the end that it doesn’t matter how they get engaged, that they don’t need a ring or a pretty proposal. 

But he can’t help, even knowing that his damn Parker luck might have reared it’s stupid head again, but feel that surprising defeat slam him right in the chest at something failing so spectacularly. That something could have gone so incredibly wrong. 

“Okay,” he mutters under his breath, leaning into her comforting touch. 

Mr. Matthews was an absolute saint, taking an alternate route back to the farm, ending the ride early so that they could look for the ring. He had his farm hands and employees practically turn the property inside out, looking through the fields, the barn, the very trail they were on. 

But they were all coming up empty. 

No one could have stolen it; Peter may have been a dumbass, but he would have known if he had been pickpocketed. 

Soon, early in the evening, the sun begins to fall, the sky darkening, forcing the diligent search to end. 

Honestly, though, of all the ways this could have possibly gone wrong, having to comb an entire 200 acre farm for a small rock on a piece of white gold was not something he’d drawn up in his millions of disaster scenarios. 

Peter waits in the car as Michelle continues talking to Mr. Matthews and the other workers. He can’t help but bang his head against the steering wheel, sighing to himself, muttering what an absolute idiot he was. 

And his hand are absolutely _freezing_ from digging through all the snow.

He’s not sure he’s ever felt more dumb. 

Scratch that.

After he see that flash of velvet under his car seat, after he reaches down and finds that damn box with the ring safe inside under his car seat–

Then he’s never felt more dumb. 

Oh no. 

It had fallen out of his pocket. 

In the car. 

Under his car seat.

He stays in stunned silence as MJ gets back in the car, waving at the kind farmers before shutting her door. 

She immediately feels his tension, noticing his silence. “What?”

He wordlessly holds the box out to her before going back to his head on the steering wheel, only just resting it this time. 

“Oh…” Is her only response as she takes the box from him, opening it slowly. Her breath catches in her throat at the ring before her; instead of a crisp, white diamond, it looks like a smoky white sapphire, the gray color shining prettily in the moonlight. 

He still doesn’t speak though, his defeat too strong. 

“You found it!” She offers, though he gives nothing but a quiet “yep,” in response. 

“In the car?”

He nods. 

A beat passes. 

“You want me to go tell them you found it in those trees over there?”

Finally, that earns her the minuscule quirk of a smile. He nods again, not moving from the steering wheel. 

She leaves without another question, ring box in hand, only to return moments later, Peter paying no attention to the blast of cold coming into the car as she gets back in. 

He honestly, truly, cannot believe that this happened. 

And now, he’s just embarrassed. 

A heavy silence falls over the car once again, and Peter has to wrestle with the urge to just smack himself on the head. He wants to go home, but can’t find it in himself to even start the damn car. 

“Hey.”

He hears her voice, encouraging him to look up at her. He does, finding her holding the open ring box out to him, a slight tilt to her head, her lips pulled back in a warm, playful smirk. She sniffles, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand, before looking at him again. 

He’s almost confused, about to ask what she’s doing, but she doesn’t give him the chance. 

“Marry me?” She asks, holding the ring out further to him.

Truly, it’s a wonder to him how MJ can make him smile, make him laugh, make him happy, no matter how stressed or upset he is. 

“Of course.”

She offers him the box, and he takes it with another chuckle, taking the ring from inside and placing it gently on her finger. 

“Oh wait,” She pulls her hand back, snorting awkwardly. “I was supposed to put it on yours right?”

And the grin that stretches across his face is uncontrollable as he closes his eyes, shaking his head at himself. 

He really does love her. 

So damn much. 

With that, a ring on her finger and his spirits brightened once again, as the snow falls gently on the windows, the soft gusts of wind quietly howling outside the car, he pulls her into a warm, loving kiss. 

_Lovely weather, indeed._


End file.
